Independent Voice Urges: Yes on Prop 6; No on Measure N

There are two measures on Tuesday’s ballot which directly hit the pocketbooks and budgets of Dixon families: the statewide Proposition 6 to repeal the massive – and increasing – gas and vehicle tax increase; and Measure N to impose a higher sales tax in Dixon.
And the issues are basically the same: the governments already have enough money; they have wasted what they took from us before; they have fibbed about the funds and are trying to keep the public in the dark about their misallocations and accounting.
I’m old enough (71) to remember when the sales tax was just 3.5 percent – throughout California it is now double that, and in some localities as much as triple.
How did that happen? The same way Measure N and the Gas Tax are presented.
“It is JUST one-half percent. “It is JUST 12 cents.” Over the years that has been “It is JUST 1/4 percent.” “It is JUST a couple pennies.” “It is JUST one percent.”
Like Charley Brown trying to kick the football Lucy holds – only to pull it away, time after time – the public keeps falling for the same old trick.
But the worst of it are the lies. The government hacks always say “The Funds are dedicated and guaranteed to go for ___________ (you name the purpose.)”
It is “for police and fire”; or “the children”, or “the libraries”; or “the roads” – on and on again and again. Those are just excuses to rake in more money so they can divert existing funds to pet projects and their buddies pockets.
They never put those less urgent “needs” on the ballot, because the public would soundly reject them. The only chance they have to fool the public is to claim the funds are urgently needed for what should be the basic purposes of local and state government – and threaten voters with poor services if they don’t bend over to their rulers wishes.
They even claim the funds will be “dedicated” and in a “lock box” with citizens’ oversight. Yeah, right. We only need look at the Dixon School District’s resistance to the School Bond Oversight Committee. And to the refusal to fully account for the developer fees paid to build the Parkway Overpass.
The latter in particular. For years this newspaper and taxpayers’ groups have filed public records requests for an accounting of the overpass funds. Only to be told the numbers are available because “there is no project” yet.
But that is the point, those funds should have been put in an untouchable separate bank account bearing interest. If they had been those overpass funds would have grown over 25 percent even at minimal interest rates.
Instead, the city “borrowed” the funds for foolish wasteful projects like the infamous “Jack-hole” railroad undercrossing – which is seldom used – with a promise to pay back the “loan” – never explaining the source of the payback money. Enter Measure N – THAT is the PAYBACK.
All the financial concerns of Dixon city government are the DIRECT result of mismanagement, misallocation, and misfeasance of the Jack Batchelor, Warren Salmons, and Maryanne Courville administrations.
The same is true on the state level. We already gave them BILLIONS (virtually the same amount they claim the Gas Tax Hike will raise) for roads – instead they put it into the “Bullet Train” from nowhere to nowhere … tens of billions over budget with no end in site and no chance of ever getting half-way to breaking even. And into pet projects for their political buddies, make-work for CalTrans employees and various unions, and what I call “pyramids” – monuments to themselves for bragging rights.
Their dishonesty is on display particularly on Proposition 6. A million people signed the petitions to get the “GAS TAX REPEAL” on the ballot. Knowing it would pass overwhelmingly, the Sacramento swamp came up with a blatantly deceptive scheme. They had Attorney General Xavier Bacerra write a fraudulent title for Proposition 6 – with NO MENTION it is a REPEAL of their Gas tax hike.
Don’t be Fooled! Proposition 6 IS a REPEAL of an excessive Gas Tax and Vehicle Fees increase. Don’t reward their deception, mismanagement, and corruption.